---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1999 16:57:59 -0500
From: Doug Hunt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Water Wars Forecast If Solutions Not Found
apologies for x-postings
> Water Wars Forecast If Solutions Not Found
>
> NAIROBI, Kenya, January 1, 1999 (ENS) - A future war over water
> is a real possibility, according to Klaus Toepfer, director-general of
> the United Nations Environment Programme. Toepfer made his
> prediction during an interview that appears in the January 1 issue of
> the scientific journal Environmental Science & Technology, published
> by the American Chemical Society.
>
> Klaus Toepfer
>
> Echoing a view he says is shared by former U.N.
> Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali, Toepfer is "completely
> convinced" there will be a conflict over natural
> resources, particularly water.
>
> Toepfer, who assumed his current position with the U.N.
> in February 1998, is a former minister of the environment for
> Germany.
>
> "Everybody knows that we have an increase in population, but we do
> not have a corresponding increase in drinking water, so the result in
> the regional dimension is conflict," Toepfer says.
>
> Toepfer advocates monitoring worldwide reserves of drinking water
> and establishing cooperative agreements for the use of bodies of
> water, including groundwater.
>
> He calls for "economic instruments to stimulate use of new
> technologies" to promote water conservation.
>
> Predicting dramatic global population growth in the future, Toepfer
> cites the need for an "efficiency revolution." Any solution for
> addressing this growth must be linked with "new technologies that
> concentrate more on efficient use of limited natural resources," he
> says.
>
> These technologies must be available, "on
> preferential terms, to developing countries,"
> Toepfer says.
>
> This view is also shared by French President
> Jacques Chirac who warned of future water wars
> last spring. At the international conference on
> Water and Sustainable Development hosted by the
> French government at UNESCO Headquarters, the
> Organization’s Director-General Federico Mayor
> and Chirac, warned that, without international
> co-operation, dwindling water resources could threaten development
> and world peace.
>
> Speaking to government ministers from 80 countries, officials from
> international, local and non-governmental organisations, business
> leaders and scientists, Mayor cautioned that over-use, due to
> population growth, waste and pollution are turning water into a
> scarce resource.
>
> "As it becomes increasingly rare, it becomes coveted, capable of
> unleashing conflicts. More than petrol or land, it is over water that
> the most bitter conflicts of the near future may be fought," the
> UNESCO leader said.
>
> A stern water warning was also voiced at the conference by former
> Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, now president of the environmental
> watchdog group Green Cross International.
>
> "Based on population projections alone, some 33 countries are
> expected to have chronic water shortages by 2025," Gorbachev said.
> "Moreover, such projections do not take into account the possibility
> that climate change could eventually further exacerbate water
> shortages.
>
> Seawater Reverse Osmosis
> Plant Al-Jubail, Saudi Arabia
>
> Gorbachev will be one of the
> keynote speakers at a Middle East
> regional water forum scheduled for
> March 10 and 11, 1999 in Amman,
> Jordan. The geographic focus will
> be on solutions that will provide
> adequate fresh drinking water for
> the arid region encompassing Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Areas
> of West Bank and Gaza.
>
> Other speakers addressing the water problems of the dry region
> include the conference host H.R.H. The Crown Prince El Hassan bin
> Talal of Jordan; Yasser Arafat, President of the Palestinian Authority;
> Shimon Peres, president of the Peres Center for Peace; Ariel Sharon,
> Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel; and James Wolfensohn, president
> of the World Bank.
>
> The forum will attempt to identify viable strategies to increase the
> effective regional supply, including development of new supplies from
> seawater desalination.
>
> Many regions and countries are expected to expand their seawater
> desalination capacity in the near future. Nuclear energy to power
> seawater desalination is a growing interest among water-scarce
> nations according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
>
> IAEA studies have shown that nuclear energy would be competitive
> with fossil energy for desalination in a range of situations. This
> applies in particular to countries which lack cheap indigenous energy
> resources, need large amounts of desalted water, and have the
> means and infrastructure to install a medium size nuclear power
> plant, the agency said in a 1997 statement.
>
> An international symposium on "Desalination
> of Seawater with Nuclear Energy" was held
> in May 1997 in Taejon, South Korea. The
> symposium was organized by the IAEA in
> co-operation with the International
> Desalination Association and the Global
> Technology Development Centre. Hosted by
> the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute,
> it was attended by about 250 participants
> from about 30 nations and international
> organizations.
>
> Japan and Kazakstan provided detailed
> information about their experience with
> nuclear desalination complexes. Korea reported its programmes in
> technology development and design for a 330 MW reactor for
> co-generation of heat and electricity that could also be used for
> desalination of seawater.
>
> India presented its plan to make some design changes to the existing
> pressurized heavy water reactors at Madras Atomic Power Station to
> make them useable for desalination. Russia reported on its small
> reactor plants for desalination.
>
> New potential sites for nuclear desalination in China were identified.
> Morocco reported the status of its pre-project study on nuclear
> desalination, which includes a 10 MW heating reactor to be supplied
> from China for a desalination complex to be built at Tan-Tan in South
> Morocco.
>
> Work is ongoing around the world to solve the looming water crisis
> with desalination. The Middle East Desalination Research Center
> based in Muscat, Oman was formed in 1997. It aims to raise the
> standard of living in the Middle East and elsewhere by cost reduction
> and quality improvement in the technical processes of water
> desalination.
>
> © Environment News Service (ENS) 1998. All Rights Reserved.
>
** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is
distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. **
Doug Hunt
Aspiring stone in the shoe of the dominant culture . . .
--
When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint,
When I ask why the poor have no food,
they call me a communist.
-- Dom Helder Camara,
Archbishop of Recife and Olinda, Brazil
